Manipur violence: SC grants protection from arrest to fact-finding team members

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim protection from arrest to the president and fact-finding team members of the Editors Guild of India (EGI) in relation to the FIR registered against them by the Manipur police. A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra ordered that no coercive steps be taken against them till September 11, the next date of hearing.
In its order, the Bench said, “Issue notice. Keep this on Monday. No coercive steps to be taken against petitioners till the next date of hearing.” Editors Guild of India approached the Supreme Court seeking quashing of two FIRs registered by Manipur police against its president and a fact-finding team of the Guild over a report on the violence in the State. The Guild’s 24-page report was released on Saturday evening. The fact-finding team was sent to Manipur to examine the media reportage in the state from August 7 to 10. The Manipur Police registered an FIR against Guild’s President Seema Mustafa, and three of its members – Seema Guha, Bharat Bhushan and Sanjay Kapoor – who were part of the fact-finding team that visited Manipur to examine how media in the state was reporting the violence. They had concluded that local news reports about the riots were biased.